Feeling Incommpetententente

So..... i offer a dynamic that i have been violently chewing on recently: Robchristrev

(ignore the fact that half of that is still christrev)

HIYA! Right, so I know you submitted the same question to the wonderful @rixareth who answered it SO WELL but I will try my hardest to give you something original because YES these three are fascinating together!!!

I guess I can start with the individual dynamics and then see how they mix so...

Robert & Chris = These two we know. Oh boy do we know. They are both obsessed with each other in their own strange way. They egg each other on, they stroke each other's ego, they break each other down to feel better about themselves and also have an inextricable part of themselves linked to the approval of the other. Safe to say: I am a fan. Though in terms of these two in a romantic sense (which is what i assume you mean) it's obviously quite toxic but in a way quite cathatic for them both. They need to be part of everything about the other person, so also being part of the romantic side just feels like the next thing to conquer (I mean, that is definitely part of the reason we have canon RobCelia and Chris dating Robert's sister). So yeah, loads of obsession going on here.

Chris & Trevor = What's interesting about Christrev compared with Grovebean is that strangely enough the root of Grovebean, even the toxic stuff, is a strange type of affection. Like they like each other and see themselves in each other which means that they become their own worst enemies. For christrev....it's just hate. These two grate against each other which causes tension whereas Chris and Robert are SO similar it causes tension. Romantically this means a lot of calling each other out, a lot of arguments and trying to pull back the pieces and build themselves up, because these two NEED to figure shit out because the whole society needs their relationship, professionally at least, to work. So, not smooth sailing, but perhaps more constructive than grovebean could be (though I feel like if grovebean actually had a conversation about what the fuck was going on between them it would have to become a therapy session so quickly and hey that might actually help loads).

Trevor & Robert = I love these two. Robert is so demeaning of Trevor's role backstage that these two don't really have a clash of personalities so much as there is just an inherent lack of respect which is fascinating. Like I feel like Chris has to have some respect for backstage folks but Robert just pulls no punches (the drama festival tells us as much). Though I think in a strange way this makes Trevor feels like he needs to prove himself. Less in a needy way but more in a when he helps Robert on stage he will give him a Look. Like see, see what I just did there, am I fucking useless now? Either I feel like Trevor could bring Robert down a notch or two if given the chance and Robert would gladly point out all of Trevor's glaring flaws. There would be no affection and no attempt to build things but enough oddly accurate criticism for the pair of them to sit and stew in it long enough to realise 'shit. He has a point'. Come back the next day, mumble some apologies and move on with their lives.

So this means together we get something which can only be described as a car crash where at least we can say just the front got the brunt of the damage. That meaning that, after the initial force, I think these guys could pull something together. A routine if you will. I feel like in a strange way they become their own self-sustaining eco-system where if one pair are fighting, which there will be a lot of with this trio, they can go to the other to vent. On top of that when two of them need a break, they can leave them with the other while they cool off.

Do I think it is a perfect eco-system? No... There is no way Robert is fully okay sharing Chris in a sense that this man needs to Win whatever he is doing so winning at being Chris' boyfriend over Trevor feels like a realistic goal for him to decide he needs to achieve. This would lead to a very odd series of events that I'm fairly certain Chris is not entirely against. Additionally i feel like Chris and Robert will manage to piss Trevor off with their egos that they both will need to apologise which is quite a cute image. And both Chris and Robert such at manual labour so having useful boyfriend Trevor around is beneficial for them both hehe

I hope this was good, I actually had more thoughts that I was expecting but then again I am really tired rn so I hope this is readable. THANKS FOR THE ASK KESSS!!!! ALWAYS APPRECIATED!!!!!

(me? in love with musicals? *impossible*)

Hehehehehe, I'm so glad that people are asking about this!

This whole idea came about because I had a song from Matilda stuck in my head and immediately thought of Jono:

But also, the more I thought about it, the more I felt that Matilda was a good musical fit for him because of the focus on friendship with outcasts and on learning how to love yourself for the different aspects you have that make you unique. Also, based on his musical number, I thought that he would like it. And finally, he's the only character to canonically have a daughter and this is a great show for kids!

[rest under the cut]

Me the second a character is doomed by the narrative AND their own thoughts or actions:

(for the absolute GOAT, saw a new update for Actions speak louder than words <3 actually so hyped to read it tonight, I love your writing so much)

AAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! That's so lovely of you to say!! You left such a lovely comment on it, I'm glad you enjoyed!! SO SO sorry this took so long, partially I wanted to make sure I had the right person in mind for this ask and partially because life just got in the way (so rude). I wanted to share with you my headcanon for a "there's only one bed" trope for christrev:

Somehow, after its disastrous run, Murder at Haversham Manor is going to the Fringe! Everyone is absolutely buzzing about the news; a whole month up in Edinburgh, surrounded by other artists, to perform their show for the masses!

After a hefty celebratory drink at their local, Chris and Annie begin the monumentous task of planning; further rehearsals (Lord knows they need them), redesigning the set so they can take it with them in a few cars, reinforcing said set, the list goes on.

They also need to find accomodation, which Jonathan offers his help with. Chris is happy to have that taken off his plate, so Annie and Jonathan spearhead the search and manage to find places.

In one of the production meetings Chris, Annie and Trevor have, he mentions he's got a cousin who lives in Edinburgh, he might be able to stay there. Knowing they're only two beds short, Annie agrees, so he reaches out and confirms.

All the girls are staying together, all the guys are staying together and Chris and Trevor are staying with Trevor’s cousin.

They get there and find out it's two spaces, one bed. Trevor just sighs and accepts his fate, Chris throws a hissy fit.

"We can't sleep in the same bed for a month Trevor!"

"Look, I know it's not ideal but it's all we've got, so we'll just have to deal with the cards we've been dealt."

"We can't!"

"Why not?"

"We- We just can't!"

"Well, what are you suggesting, one of us sleeps on the floor?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting, and since you made the mistake, I think it's only fair if you sleep on the floor."

"Wha- for the entire run?"

"Yes."

"Chris you can't be serious."

"Do I look like I'm joking? Am I the kind of person to make those sorts of jokes?"

"I'm not sleeping on the fucking floor when I'm hauling your bloody set to the venue every day!"

"You should've thought of that before making that mistake then."

"You asked for two places to sleep. I got you two places to sleep! What more do you want from me?"

After a long argument they decide to alternate nights. Annie finds out because Trevor is a right grumpy git when he's slightly in pain and hasn't slept properly.

“Jesus, what’s the matter with you? Got out of bed on the wrong side did you?”

"I'd be so lucky.”

“What does that mean?”

"My cousin’s got us on a pullout couch and Chris doesn’t want to share, so we’re taking turns.”

Annie pauses. "You're fucking joking.”

“Nope, wish I was.”

“Jesus.”

“Tell me about it, my back’s fucking aching.”

“Have you been doing that this entire time?”

“Yeah.”

“Fucking why?”

"He’s being difficult Annie!”

“So? Be fucking difficult back! Don’t let the director walk all over you Trev, for fuck’s sake.” Trevor rolls his eyes. Once Annie gets started on the inequality between directors and production crew, she doesn't stop.

“Easier said than done! He’s the one with the problem so he should be sleeping on the floor all the time rather than swapping out with me.”

“God, you two are children, neither of you needs to sleep on the fucking floor, just share the bed!"

One night when Chris has the bed he relents and lets Trevor in the bed with him.

They build a wall of pillows and do all the usual "there's only one bed" trope things before falling asleep. Trevor falls asleep within five minutes, and Chris is left tossing and turning for another hour or so until he finally falls asleep as well.

When Chris wakes up, he's pleasantly warm and so, so comfortable. He'd not been this comfortable before on this stupid pullout couch. Then he realises where he is. He remembers what happened last night and turns around to see the back of someone's head. 

Trevor is WAY closer than he was last night. The reason Chris is so pleasantly warm was because their backs are pressed against each other, and Chris all but leaps out of the bed and miraculously doesn't wake Trevor while doing so.

When Trevor wakes up, Chris complains about having slept poorly (a massive lie, he was actually very comfortable) and Trevor just grumbles something at him and goes to make himself a coffee.

This goes on for a few nights. They go to sleep with the pillows between them, and by the time they wake up they're pressed together. Usually back to back, sometimes Trevor has turned in the night and his side is pressed against Chris' back. (Chris realises with horror that the bed they're sleeping in dips in the middle, so no matter what he does, by the morning they're a lot closer than he'd like them to be.)

As far as Chris knows, Trevor is none the wiser. Chris always wakes up before him and judging by his snoring, Trevor falls asleep way before Chris does. Chris considers sleeping on the floor again, but the few nights he did so caused an old shoulder injury to flare up, affecting his performance, and he really couldn't be having that.

About a week in, the reviews for the show begin rolling in. Needless to say, the first ones aren't great. (The ones that follow aren't either, to be fair.) Chris does his best to stay optimistic or at the very best, indifferent towards them to keep morale up, but late at night, when he's staring up at the ceiling, his mind spirals.

Is the show really as bad as the reviews say? Is the company as bad? Maybe this isnt the career choice for him. Maybe his parents were right.

"Chris?" A sleepy voice from next to him whispers, nearly causing Chris to jump out of his skin.

"What?"

"Y'alright?"

"I'm fine."

A moment of silence passes before Chris feels the other body in the pullout couch shift. "I can practically hear you thinking. Come on, what's on your mind?"

"Nothing."

Trevor sighs. "Come on Chris, we're all in this together. That review sucked, but it sucked for all of us. Misery shared is misery halved an' all that."

Chris considers his options. Either, he can deny it further and eventually drift off into a fitfull sleep, which will undeniably affect his performance tomorrow, or he can... talk about it. With Trevor. When Trevor joined for Haversham, Chris was simply waiting for him to run off like the other techs did, but so far he hadn't. Trevor was still here. He'd become fast friends with the rest of the society, and now here he was, lying next to him in the dark in Trevor's cousin's spare bedroom in Edinburgh, asking him to talk about how he felt.

And Chris did. He talked and talked and talked, and Trevor listened patiently, and talked back. Before Chris knew it, Trevor was falling asleep mid sentence.

"Trevor?"

"Hm?"

"You were saying something."

"Oh, s'rry. Wha' w's I sayin'?"

"Nevermind."

"S'rry Chris."

"No, don't be sorry. Thank you, Trevor."

"Hmwhafor?"

"Talking to me."

"'Course, anytime mate."

"Goodnight."

"G'night."

That morning, Chris wakes up, back pressed against a warm body, and he doesn't immediately move away from it. Instead, he finds comfort in it, for the first time.

As the month goes on, this is how it goes. Chris puts the pillows between them, Trevor falls asleep the second his head hits his pillow, Chris stays up for another hour or so (he pulls out his ereader and reads for a bit, knowing the light won't wake Trevor) before falling asleep. Chris wakes up before Trevor, pillows pushed on top of both of them or kicked to the ground, and gets out of bed, then Trevor's alarm goes off and he stumbles out of bed into the kitchen about an hour later.

It becomes strangely domestic. Chris has a cup ready with a teabag in it for Trevor to pour boiling water into when he gets up, he can't remember when he started doing that.

Their bus journeys to the venue become less quiet too. At first, they sat in silence next to each other, Chris reading or looking out the window, Trevor with his headphones on. As time goes on, they chat more and more. About the weather (horrific, it may be August but it's still Scotland after all), the crowds (absolutely heaving the closer they get to the centre of town where they venue is), even the audiences they have in (the one day they had one audience member haunts them both, it meant Trevor and Annie couldn't chat shit behind the tech desk).

One night, when the society is out celebrating a good review (left by one of the venue techs who took pity on them), Chris goes back to his digs earlier than Trevor. He wakes up to an empty bed, and it feels... odd. Chris checks his phone and sees Trevor has sent him a text message in the wee hours of the morning.

too ficked

cant wapk baackk to digs

stayyinng at ghee girls gonni

will see yiu in thhe morniingg

Chris assumes that means he got too drunk and stayed at the girls' digs last night, since they were only a seven minute walk from the pub they were at. When he makes the bus journey into town, it feels strangely quiet.

He first sees Trevor again at the venue. He's wearing the same clothes (he's always wearing the same clothes really) and he looks haggard, but alive in a way Chris hadn't seen since the beginning. When he spots Chris, he gives him a small smile.

"Bet you had a good night sleep for the first time last night," he jokes as he sidles up to Chris.

He didn't. Chris actually had a worse night sleep than he had in what feels like ages. Instead of telling him this, Chris responds with snark. "Didn't get woken up by your snoring, I'd say that was a win." Trevor grins at him before disappearing to help Annie cart set about.

Everything is fine. Everything is completely fine. Until the last day. Chris wakes up, nice and warm as he's become embarassingly used to, but something is different. His pillow feels, different. He opens his eyes slowly and blinks away the sleep when he suddenly hears his pillow beating faintly. He feels a weight and a weird warmth on his shoulder and reality hits him like a freight train.

Chris is lying on Trevor's chest. Chris' head is tucked neatly under Trevor's and he's lying on Trevor's chest. Chris' leg is thrown over one of Trevor's legs and he's lying on Trevor's chest.

The force with which Chris pulls back causes him to tumble out of bed and land on his arse with an undignified thud, but thankfully Trevor doesn't wake up. Chris scurries into the kitchen to distract himself and pretend nothing happened.

When Trevor comes out about half an hour later, Chris avoids his eyes and mumbles something about "packing up" before hurrying into the bedroom to quickly pack his suitcase.

Their suitcases left at their digs for later pickup with the car, during their last bus journey Chris sits across the aisle from Trevor. Trevor seems confused, but Chris doesn't dare look at him for too long.

Chris is uncharacteristically quiet on their last day, speaking only when he absolutely has to. He puts his everything into their last performance, and when they're in the car back to Cornley he does his best not to think about Trevor, about how warm he felt, Trevor's heart beating underneath him, his scruff gently scratching the top of his scalp with every breath, as he watches Trevor rage next to him at idiots on the road.

Chris Bean locks the entire month away in a little box in his mind, and vows never to open it again.

One other thing to note, I came up with this hc as I was writing easily distracted and it fits into that universe 👀